Engines Of Order: A Mechanology Of Algorithmic Techniques

Description

Software has become a key component of contemporary life and algorithms that rank, classify, or recommend are everywhere. Building on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon and the cultural techniques tradition, this book examines the constructive and cumulative character of software and retraces the historical trajectories of a series of algorithmic techniques that have become the building blocks for contemporary practices of ordering. Developed in opposition to centuries of library tradition, these techniques instantiate dynamic, perspectivist, and interested forms of knowing. Embedded in technical infrastructures and economic logics, they have become engines of order that transform how we arrange information, ideas, and people. Cover......Page 1 Table of Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 Part I......Page 24 1. Engines of Order......Page 26 2. Rethinking Software......Page 52 3. Software-Making and Algorithmic Techniques......Page 82 Part II......Page 144 4. From Universal Classification to a Postcoordinated Universe......Page 146 5. From Frequencies to Vectors......Page 200 6. Interested Learning......Page 236 7. Calculating Networks: From Sociometry to PageRank......Page 266 Conclusion: Toward Technical Culture......Page 306 About the Author......Page 348 Index......Page 350